Psychiatrist calls fears about Ukrainian veterans with PTSD unrealistic

A widespread view holds that after the war thousands of Ukrainian 'battle-scarred boys' with PTSD will come to Poland and rape, rob and form mafias. Colonel Radoslaw Tworus, head of the clinic of psychiatry, combat stress and psychotraumatology at the Military Institute of Medicine, told PAP that such a picture is unrealistic, including from a clinical point of view.

One of the symptoms of PTSD is withdrawal from social life and avoidance of places that recall the trauma. 'It is hard to imagine thousands of veterans with PTSD walking the streets with Kalashnikovs,' Tworus said. If such people do appear, they would be a small percentage.

According to the psychiatrist, the risk may come from people with personality disorders that predate the war and to whom the front gave a chance to use violence with impunity; the war further dulled their reaction to death. Such former soldiers, seeking adrenaline, could form criminal groups after the war, as happened after the Soviet war in Afghanistan. It is necessary to prepare for this and to think about recording people who cross the border.

According to Tworus, such fears are the result of social anxiety fuelled by manipulation linked to Russia's psychological war. PTSD is treatable and emerges after an extreme experience with a direct threat to life: not only in war, but also after taking part in a road accident.